THE Gilas Pilipinas cadet squad survived a scare from a vastly-improved Singapore side and came away with an 81-59 win on Tuesday for its second straight victory in the Southeast Asia Basketball Association (Seaba) Cup at the Stadium 29 in Bangkok, Thailand.
With first-game hero Troy Rosario struggling, Head Coach Nash Racela found a new go-to guy in Jio Jalalon, who tallied 17 points on eight-of-12 shooting from the floor in 21 minutes of action.
With the victory, the Filipinos tied host Thailand atop the standings.
Almon Vosotros, who along with Rosario are the only pros in the squad, added 14 markers in a starting role to back up Jalalon.
Rosario, who had 19 markers in Gilas’s 108-84 demolition of Malaysia the other day, was held to only four points on 2-of-6 shooting from the floor. He grabbed nine rebounds.
The Filipinos went off to a hot start, drilling five triples to erect a 27-14 advantage before settling for a 41-19 halftime spread as the Singaporeans outscored the Philippines in the second period, 15-14.
Singapore’s John Ng anchored a 7-0 run to move his team to within six, 43-37 but Gilas responded with a 14-2 attack led by Mike Tolomia, Jalalon and RR Pogoy to push their lead back to 57-39 with 1:12 left in the game.
The Philippines held a comfortable 59-41 advantage when Singapore again threatened, hitting nine straight points to slice the lead to 50-59, 7:57 remaining.
Jalalon and Vosotros joined forces in a 20-9 run to put the game out of reach, 79-59, 1:16 to go.
Tolomia chipped in 12 points for the Filipinos, who played Indonesia (0-3) on Wednesday night.
Delvin Goh netted 17 markers while Ng had 12 points for Singapore, which dropped to 1-1.
Thailand also notched its second straight win on Tuesday—85-66 over Malaysia.
The top two finishers in this tournament will advance to the International Basketball Federation Asia Challenge in Tehran, Iran, in September.